Frieren – Single Dad and His Annoying Two Kids (R) [03/04/2025]

Have you ever come across those situations where you’re at a McDonald’s drive-thru and your son or daughter and their respective boyfriend or girlfriend are just screaming at each other in the back of your car? Relationships are finicky, and they can often be chaotic and difficult. I mean, every parent has obviously experienced this, and they know, despite their best efforts, this is how things just have to be. You’ll just have to sit there mindlessly scrolling through your phone looking at cat memes while World War Three happens in the back as the two kids talk it out while hoping they don’t rip out each others’ throats.

“Oh my g**, why can’t you kids just hurry up and get it together,” you mentally scream at the top of your lungs. Deep inside you know that this is just part of the process when it comes to romance. You went through it at least once; it may or may not have gone well. The dumb boy is just smiling, trying to sigh away at the problem, completely unaware of the situation. The girl thinks she’s in the right, expecting the boy to know exactly what she feels and why she’s frustrated. You’re about to lose it as you’re running out of reels to watch while expecting them to “talk” for the next three hours while you’re stuck here with them. You look out the window and rethink your life decisions, wonder if it was worth it to have children, and then ultimately consider throwing your kid the keys and taking an Uber to go home.

Anyways, Stark’s combo lets him stand himself at the start of your attack step for a cheap discard cost and sacrificing his climax in play. When he does so, you choose the center Fern from your waiting room and spawn it onto field while giving himself the bodyguard ability cross-turn or the ability to stock a card from waiting room. Fern herself is the true finisher of the deck as a backrow assist that can marker a specific card from hand underneath her to deal two damage to your opponent.

The aforementioned card that 3/2 Fern must marker is the present event shown here. The present event is a Cigarettes event that goes to memory. When you level up, you can discard a card to bring it back to hand. This Cigarettes event serves many purposes in the deck. Firstly, it is a way to mill your deck. Secondly, it is a way to net advantage and selection. Lastly, it is also another way to filter your deck by letting you discard excess climaxes or standby targets from your hand into waiting room when you level up to set you up for the next turn.

Sein, father, is a consistent way to push the event into memory and allow you to continuously cycle the event throughout the game. Through his unfettered annoyance, Sein allows you to either send the event from waiting room or deck to memory when you use his backup while also defending his silly kids.

Instead of the standard hand gaining combo in the early game, Stark’s early combo instead spawns himself out and acts as a unique on field counter that protects your other characters from being reversed, sacrificing himself valiantly to benefit and save others.

As in standard in many modern standby decks, 0/0 Fern in the white dress is a cantrip profile that also bounces back on climax play. She opens up a slot in your backrow and grants cross-turn power to one of your characters. Fern and Stark together gives a character the ability to trigger twice for the turn while refunding the second trigger. They can work collectively to help you push additional damage or set-up your field with a strong fighter for the next turn. They can also sacrifice themselves to let you scour the top four cards of your deck and add a character to hand while filling your waiting room with potential standby targets.

Taking a bit of liberty from the blue cards pool, we can take some other Fern pieces to maintain our theme but also give the deck a few more options. Fern staring in the corner is a cantrip profile that also gives you a cheap filter ability if you do manage to mill an event with her forced mill effect. Fern in the center is a quick burst powered beater that can help you fix your hand cheaply in the early game if she reverses an opponent. Lastly, Fern looking stoic is a salvage brainstormer that has an event interacting ability to rearrange the top two cards when you use an event. It can occasionally come in handy if you chain effects with a bit of luck or to determine your attack order if there is a standby climax on top.

The family isn’t complete without grandpa giving advice to his spoiled grandson. Eisen here has a bond to Stark on the right from waiting room on play. More importantly, Eisen’s other ability allows you to search your deck for a character and put that card into waiting room. This can immediately set-up for standby shenanigans, but Eisen can potentially set-up twice since you have to discard a card to bond to Stark. Stark crying is a generic large beater that markers the top card of your deck if it is a character or event.

I honestly feel like Sein more and more nowadays as my hairs are growing white, falling off, and my general wake-up routine involves praying for fortune to fall from the sky. Alas, some cards to help out the young lovers include the above. Stark looking confused in a special outfit is a Taigei profile with an additional ability to discard a card and spawn a level zero or lower character from waiting room, likely that of the sack, check four Stark and Fern or the bounce-back profile when a climax is played. 1/1 Stark holding chopped wood is a good standby target that is large and has hand encore (also a perfect companion for grandpa Eisen’s ability). Fern reading her book is a Kazuma profile that can also anti-marker a slot on your opponent’s stage (particularly harmful to Bone Sorcerer). Sein naked and on the streets (likely me in two years) is a drop salvage profile that also mills your deck and can punish one of your opponent’s front row characters if you mill a climax. 0/0 Stark crying (Stark cries a lot in this set) is a front row sinker that lets you pay a hefty cost on play to salvage a character. Fern looking grumpy is a spammable salvage brainstorm that also acts as a field counter.

Young love, perturbed, innocent, chaotic and unsettled, is charming in its own right. Savour the experiences of youth, both the ups and downs, mini steps up the staircase that is adulthood.